Elephants (IMAGE)

Princeton University

Elephants

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Researchers from Princeton University and the University of California-Berkeley found that a one-time legal sale of 108 metric tons of stockpiled ivory that was intended to stifle elephant poaching in Africa actually expanded the black market for ivory and led to the slaughter of more elephants. The researchers found that the partial legalization stimulated new demand for ivory and made concealing illegal ivory easier. The booming international black market for ivory is thought to have led to the slaughter of an estimated 100,000 elephants from 2011 to 2014.

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Photos by Nitin Sekar

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